How do you feed the world? 75% of Mali's population are farmers, but rich foreign corporations are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas into American-style agribusiness monoculture mechanized farms for their own profit and export, destroying and changing ecosystems and the culture. Many Malian peasants do not welcome these efforts, seeing them as yet another manifestation of imperialism threatening their ability to feed themselves. As Mali experiences a military coup, the developers are scared off but can Mali's farmers combat food shortages and escape poverty on their own terms?

Africa produces 10 percent less food than it did in 1960. In Mali, an American plan for a vast genetically engineered sugar cane (biofuel) operation on the banks of the Niger River threatens small-scale native rice farmers who have fed their communities for generations....http://video.pbs.org/video/2296680847

Truthout, December 04, 2014▶ SEEDS OF THE FUTURE DIMINISHING AS MONO INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE DOMINATES THE WORLD. A third of the world's land area is dedicated to agriculture. Farmers' fields and pastures comprise (after the oceans) the second largest ecosystem on the planet. This vast tract has been largely transformed into sterile monoculture deserts in which all other organisms are suppressed with agrochemicals, and only the cash crop is allowed to thrive. Whether it is soy in the Brazilian Amazon, wheat on the Ukrainian steppes or corn in Iowa, a single high-yield variety typically dominates the landscape for as far as the eye can see. http://truth-out.org/news/item/27760-seeds-of-the-future

Genetic engineering is about private corporate control of the food system.

Pambazuka, February 19, 2015

▶ THE RABID TACTICS OF THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY TO GAIN CONTROL OF GHANA'S FOOD SYSTEMWhose interests does Prof. Alhassan represent? Prof. Alhassan was been quoted as dismissing anti-GMO groups because, according to him, they allegedly do not have any scientific proof or knowledge to offer when it comes GMO technology. But he is wrong.

Ghanaian farmers need to abhor and reject scientists laden with conflicts of interest. Monsanto and Syngenta are particularly greedy to get their hands on Ghana’s agriculture and control the seed market here.Professor Alhassan is attempting to control the information farmers and the public see and hear just like the industry he represents....

“Today, large numbers of scientists are in the employ of Big Pharma, Big Ag, and all kinds of corporations with anti-environmental and anti-social justice agendas.”(2)... Professor Alhassan is a key employee of Big Ag, and has been for his entire career....

▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS

There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.

History is riddled with examples of the poor dying of hunger when food was plentiful. Classic amongst these is the famine which wracked the West African Sahel during the early 1970s. While people were dying of hunger in Senegal, Mali and Niger, peanuts — a key sauce ingredient and source of protein across the region — were being exported to Europe....

...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise...http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291

When profits overide local culture, destroy ecosystems and environment for the western ideal of monoculture agriculture, owned by multi-nationals, displacing local indigenous peoples, it is time to draw a line.

In this instance, in Mali, the sugar cane is for export, not for local food supply and the indigenous peoples will be doomed to working laborers in an environment of big agriculture for little money. Creating dependency on foreign aid and hand-outs for food for survival while foreign entities profit greatly is NOT where we should be going for the future.

Money is not the currency for many cultures, it is producing food locally for themselves and their community and we have no right to impose our outside mega gmo agriculture on anyone, destroying their connection to their lands and livelihoods.

Common Dreams, February 23, 2015▶ MANIPULATE AND MISLEAD: HOW GMOs ARE INFILTRATING AFRICAThe most persistent myth about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is that they are necessary to feed a growing global population. Highly effective marketing campaigns have drilled it into our heads that GMOs will produce more food on less land in an environmentally friendly manner. The mantra has been repeated so often that it is considered to be truth. Now this mantra has come to Africa, sung by the United States government and multinational corporations like Monsanto, seeking to open new markets for a product that has been rejected by so many others around the globe. http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/23/manipulate-and-mislead-how-gmos-are-infiltrating-africa

Guardian Global Development, February 18, 2014▶ THE G8 AND THE CORPORATE TAKE OVER OF AFRICAN FARMING. As part of the New Alliance, 10 African governments have signed up to change dozens of laws, policies and regulations to make their countries more attractive to the private sector. Collectively, they have made more than 200 commitments, including the overhaul of seed and tax laws and the setting aside of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land for commercial investors. http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/interactive/2014/feb/18/g8-fight-future-african-farming-interactive

Around the early 1900s the European colonial powers built railways to connect the interior of Africa to the ports. They used this infrastructure to export food and minerals out of Africa to feed the industrial revolution in Europe. Over a hundred years later it’s happening all over again. Take a look at our latest infographic to see how.

▶ USA STRONG-ARMS AFRICAN AGRICULTURE: LAND GRAB, CROOKED POLITICS, GMO'S ALL ROLLED INTO ONE The "Green Revolution" has led to financial ruin, suicide and cancer for many farmers and farm communities in India, Asia and Latin America. Please see Monsanto’s man in the Obama administration, with an eye on Africahttp://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=7881

Under the guise of tackling hunger, initiatives like the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, will help corporations take control over Africa’s land, seeds and markets - at the expense of small farmers. Join our campaign to oppose this twenty-first century corporate scramble for Africa.http://www.wdm.org.uk/food

Pambazuka, July 24. 2014 -▶ GMOs AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY: WHICH WAY AFRICA?African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace GMOs. Governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the factshttp://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/92594

Pambazuka -Voices for Freedom and Justice in Africa

▶ HOW COMPANIES FRAME ISSUES OF FOOD AND GLOBAL HUNGER FOR THEIR OWN SELF-INTEREST AND BOTTOMLINE PROFITS

There is a new, but deceptive, foreign drive to end hunger in Africa through large-scale agribusiness. Yet helping poor households in rural Africa feed themselves in an affordable manner means introducing low-cost, sustainable enhancements to farming.

...The rise of philanthrocapitalism in the US, where former and current business leaders, through the strength of their foundations, have increasingly come to influence the shape and direction of US international development programmes. Central to the philanthrocapitalist worldview is a belief that private enterprise is the fundamental agent of progressive change and that business acumen trumps other forms of expertise... http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/85291

THERE IS NOTHING BENEVOLENT ABOUT THIS "FEED THE FUTURE" McDONALD-IZATION OF AFRICA PROGRAM, BUT IT SURE READS GOOD. FACT SHEET FROM THE WHITE HOUSE U.S.-African Cooperation on Food Security http://ow.ly/zXEp6

▶ PUTTING THE FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE:

At the Group of 8 (G8) meetings this past weekend, President Obama and the leaders of the rest of the world's richest nations abandoned their governments' previous commitments to donate $7.3 billion a year to end hunger in Africa, after disbursing only 58 percent of the total pledge of $22 billion and giving less than 6 percent in new money they pledged three years ago. Instead, rich nations will leave the problem in the hands of the "New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition" (Nice Title http://ow.ly/b8uIL) where private corporations will invest $3 billion over 10 years...looking for mega profit returnshttp://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_25508.cfm

While the United Nations climate talks in Durban enter their ninth day of political feet-dragging, researchers and peasants around the world are busy connecting the dots between so- called "green climate solutions", industrialised agriculture and chronic hunger.

GRAIN — January 21, 2015 ▶ AFRICA: LAND AND SEED LAWS UNDER ATTACK: WHO IS PUSHING CHANGES IN AFRICA? World Bank, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Group of 8 wealthiest countries (G8), Bill Gates-funded Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the International Fertiliser Development Centre (IFDC) and others.

(The Planet Needs To Be Returned to It's Natural Balance and Wellbeing, restoring biodiversity and health to our soil and food which Genetically Engineered Food Destroys with all it's attending pesticides, chemicals, artificial fertilizers and forcing GMO onto the world's population without disclosure, regulation, oversight or appropriate independent peer reviewed research)

Confronting climate change and poverty, a new crop of city farmers comes of age in Africa

Some 15 million Africans abandon the countryside every year in pursuit of better lives in the city. Climate change and further desertification will only exacerbate that trend. How will these ballooning urban populations survive? The best strategy, they're finding, is to begin sowing seeds right where they are.

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